Water-tube boiler for submarines.



G. C. DAVISON.

WATER TUBE BOILER FOR SUBMARINES.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 25, 1916.

1,22% 1 G50 Patented Apr. 24, 1917.

7 1 I If 2 ATTORNEYS they PATNT n GREGORY C. DAVISON', OF NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO ELECTRIC BOAT COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

WATER-TUBE BOILER FOR SUBMARINES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 24L, 11917,

Application filed March 25, 1916. Serial No. 86,652.

To all whom it may come:

Be it known that I, GREGORY C.'DAv1- SON, a citizen of the United States, residing at New London, in the county of New London and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Water-Tube Boilers for Submarines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

In an important sense, this invention may be said to relate broadly tothe provision of a novel, efficient and exceedingly practical construction for the power plant of a steam-driven submarine boat. The development of submarines along the lines of very large, high speed craft requires enormous horse power and the object of this invention is to provide within the submarine a steam boiler suitable to produce such power. In this connection it is necessary to use special types of water-tube boilers in order to make the power plant equipment as light as possible and also occupy a minimum amount of space. Particularly, there are certain special heat conditions to be met and overcome, such conditions not being en countered in surface vessels or in other relations where installations of steam power plants are made.

It may be stated that one of the advantages possible in connection with a watertube boiler constructed as herein described is the elimination of fire-brick for the furnace or combustion chamber and also of the usual steel casing lagged with magnesia or felt. The use of fire-brick and of such a casing as heretofore commonly employed is undesirable in many respects. For example it is dangerous or impossible to quickly cool the fire-brick; and the necessity for a practically instantaneous and yet safe cooling thereof will arise at frequent and unexpected intervals aboard a submarine. Accordingly, the'invention discloses as a feature thereof a water jacketed device adapted to cooperate in a particular manner with parts of the boiler proper, and especially for such cooperation whenever it is desired to cool off these boiler-parts.

Recent submarine boats have been of the double-hull type, and it is probable that will in the future be so constructed, especially in View of the tendency to construct larger and larger submarines. The disclosed embodiment of the present invention is especially designed to take full advantage of and cooperate with certain of the prevised functions which were in mind when these double-hulled vessels were evolved. One of the objects of the invention, therefore, is to provide a boiler-plant which may advantageously be installed in the inner hull of such a submarine so as to occupy an intermediate longitudinal subdivision of said inner hull, and thus be located compactly and advantageously in a cylindrical compartment of its own. this connection there is provided as a part of the embodiment a novel and valuable inter-hull design adapted to permit passage of members of the crew around the compartment even while the vessel is submerged,

and even if, as hereinafter explained, the compartment be flooded.

In the accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 discloses a transverse sectional view taken through said embodiment; and

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

The reference numeral 3 indicates the usual weak outer-hull, and the reference numeral 4 indicates a special type of strong inner hull.

Throughout its length, except opposite the boiler compartment 5, the strong inner hull may be of the usual construction, adapted to contain fore and aft of the boiler com partment various subdivisions of the interior of the inner hull, to establish battery compartments, crews quarters, engine room, &c. Opposite the boiler compartment 5, however, the inter-hull space 6 is taken advantage of to provide room for the innerhull side-extensions or open-ended tunnels 4 These extensions establish corridors or passages 7 alongside the boiler compartment, in order to permit members of the crew to have access from one part of the boat to the other around the boiler compartment and in order to provide space for carrying wires, pipes, etc., around the boiler compartment. As an alternative, it may be desirable to construct the inner hull 4 as a smooth shell in the usual way, and, after cutting the openings or doorways indicated at 8, provide the passages 7 by mounting uponthe inner hull auxiliary and separate wall-members formed as separate corridorestablishing side-wings. In either case, the

corridor-walls would preferably be built to withstand deep-submergence pressures.

The boiler compartment 5 is built up by means of a cylindrical subdivision 4* of the inner hull and by the transverse bulkheads 9 and 10.

Practically the entire interior surface of the compartment 5 is lined with a casing 11 as shown. The space between the casing 11 and subdivision 4" of the inner hull and bulkheads 9 and 10 is designed to act as a water jacket 12' for the entire boiler compartment. The water jacket may form a part of its own water circulating system, drawing in the water of submergence through connection 13 and discharging through connection 14, or else may act as a feed-water-heater. Illustrative connections will presently be described whereby the water jacket may act as such feed-waterheater if desired.

Inside casing 11 is a boiler unit, of which 15 indicates an upper drum and 16 a lower drum, the two drums connected by banks 17 of curved tubes to form a horizontal combustion chamber or fire-box located centrally of the compartment.

double ended, that is, there are mounted centrally in each of the bulkheads 9 and 10 a group of fuel-oil burners 19, so that the gases from the burners may be caused to circulate among the tubes by means of suitably arranged baflles before finally entering an uptake 20. A type of battle which might advantageously be employed is shown at 21.

The combustion chamber being double ended, the flames and gases from the oilfuel burners impinge on each other and since there is employed nowhere a fire-brick wall, very high efficiency is possible. It will be seen that this novel form of boiler provides not only for a very free circulation,- but also for a very rapid raising of the circulating medium to its boiling point and the subsequent generation of steam as the result of creating within the combustion chamber a very much lower temperature than has been possible before. Irrespective of the presence of the water jacket 12, the tube circulating system as described is split up into very many subdivisions which combine to form a water-jacketed inclosing cage for the combustion chamber. I Aside from the fact that this substantially completecaging of the water-heating medium by the very tubes through which the steam generating medium circulates presents a very great mass of water which is at one time being in effect directly heated and is practically receiving all the heat as it is generated, the

in substitution for fire-brick or the like is very important. A submarine boat is often required to submerge quickly and unexpectedly. As is well known, its principal method of submerged propulsion is to utilize a storage battery power plant. Therefore there will be no necessity for keeping up the boiler pressure and preparatory to submergence the fuel burners 19 are shut off. If, during submergence, the boiler be not cooled in some way, possibly the safety and certainly the comfort of the crew is endangered. It is practically impossible to quickly cool the fire-brick of a boiler, and it may even be dangerous to make the attempt. With the water jacket 12 present, however, the situation may adequately be taken care of if as the boat submerges water is continually circulated in the space through the jacket 12, so that none of the heat 1n the boiler may radiate to other parts of the boat and cause any discomfort or trouble.

If desired, the boiler space may be entirely flooded, as by the valved connection indicated at 22, even to the extent of using the boiler compartment 5 as one of the ballast tanks; and in such case it would be de sirable to cover with a suitable watertight casing the burners 19, and to construct the bulkheads 9 and 10 strong enough to withstand deep submergence pressure.

I claim:

1. In a submarine boat, in combination, an inner hull, an outer hull, a closed compartment within the inner hull, a watertube boiler located in said compartment and a fore-and-aft arranged thoroughfare compartment alongside the boiler compartment, the thoroughfare compartment extending forward and aft beyond the forward and aft ends of the boiler compartment, and openings in the inner hull forward and aft of the boiler compartment for affording di-' partment may be flooded to cool the boiler when the vessel is submerged.

4. In a submarine boat, in combination, an inner hull, an outer hull, a closed compartment within the inner hull, a watertube boiler located in said compartment and occupyin the entire interior thereof, a thoroughfare compartment arranged exterior to the inner hull and alongside the boiler compartment and communicating with the interior of the inner hull forward and aft of the boiler compartment, and a connection whereby the closed compartment may be flooded to cool the boiler when the vessel is submerged.

5. In a submarine boat, in combination, an outer hull, an inner hull which in horizontal section defines a cruciform figure, and

a closed boiler compartment located intermediate and spaced from the arms of the cross.

6. In a submarine boat, in combination, an outer hull, an inner hull which in horizontal section defines a cruciform figure, a closed boiler compartment located intermediate and spaced from the arms of the cross, and a connection whereby the compartment may be flooded to cool the boiler when the vessel is submerged.

7. In a submarine boat, in combination, an inner hull having a longitudinal section formed as a closed compartment, a substantially cylindrical outer hull surrounding and spaced from said section, and a passageway disposed alongside the closed compartment and arranged exterior to and carried by the inner hull and having entrances forward and aft of the closed compartment.

8. In a submarine boat, in combination, a closed compartment arranged interiorly of the submarine and constituting a longitudinal subdivision of the hull, an oil-burning water-tube boiler arranged in the compartment, and a connection operable from a point inside the hull but exterior to said subdivision whereby the compartment may be flooded to cool the boiler when the vessel is submerged.

9. In a submarine boat, in combination, a closed cylindrical boiler compartment having end walls arranged transversely of the submarine, a water-tube boiler contained in the compartment and including a drum in the upper part of the compartment, curved tubes opening into the drum and a combustion chamber substantially completely caged by said tubes, and oil burners arranged in the end walls to direct their flames away from the end walls and toward the center of the compartment whereby the boiler crew may attend the boiler while stationed exterior to the compartment.

10. In a submarine boat, in combination, a closed cylindrical compartment having end walls arranged transversely of the submarine, and a water-tube boiler plant contained in the compartment and including a drum in the upper part of the compartment, curved tubes opening into the drum, a combustion chamber substantially completely caged by said tubes, a boiler crew compartment separated from the boiler compartment by one of said end walls, and a plurality of oil burners mounted in one of said end walls.

11. In a submarine boat, in combination, a closed compartment arranged interiorly of the submarine and having end walls and also having double side walls ada ted to act as a water jacket, a water-tube oiler contained in the compartment and occupying the entire interior thereof, a connection at one end open to the sea and at its other end communicating with said water jacket, and a connection whereby the compartment may be flooded to cool the boiler when the vessel is submerged.

12. In a submarine boat, in combination, a weak outer hull, a strong inner hull, a closed boiler compartment arranged within the submarine and established as an intermediate longitudinal subdivision of the inner hull, a boiler within the compartment, and a pair of strong-wall passageways protruding away from the otherwise smooth contour of the inner hull at opposite sides of the closed compartment and each passageway having at its opposite ends man-holes one giving access to the interior of the inner hull forward of the compartment and the other givin access to the interior of the inner hull a t of the compartment.

13. In a submarine boat, in combination, an oil-burning water-tube boiler located within the hull of the boat, a water-jacket for the boiler, a longitudinal'section of the hull directly and permanently inclosing the water jacket and boiler, and connections for admitting the water of submergence to the water-jacket to cool the boiler when the vessel is submerged.

14. In a submarine boat, in combination, a boiler compartment arranged interiorly of the submarine, an oil-burning water-tube boiler arranged in the compartment, a waterjacket for the boiler, the water jacket and the boiler occupying the whole interior of the boiler compartment, and connections for admitting the water of submergence to the water-jacket and also to the boiler compartment to cool the boiler when the vessel is submerged.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

GREGORY C. DAVISON. 

